


Once upon a Pridecember

by Desidera



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M, Yu-Gi-Oh! Pridecember 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:21:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27885163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desidera/pseuds/Desidera
Summary: Stand-alone ficlets following some of the prompts for Yugioh! Pridecember 2020:5. RedThe vampire one9.+13. Carry/LetterThe angsty one16. Standing in LineThe one where they run20. SlowThe one where Kaiba doesn't slow down25. Sweet -  can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28358916It's too long to be included into this collection. Oh, and it's Flareshipping.Warnings, Notes and Tags can be found at the beginning of each separate ficlet.
Relationships: Atem/Kaiba Seto, Kaiba Seto/Yami Yuugi
Comments: 20
Kudos: 20





	1. 5. Red

**Author's Note:**

> General Author's Notes:
> 
> I'll do a small number of prompts for Pridecember, all stand-alone ficlets, most of them AU, some within the frames of canon, we'll see. Further notes and warnings can be found at the beginning of each separate ficlet. Thank you for reading! 
> 
> Author's Notes:
> 
> I never thought I'd write a vampire AU… But the prompt was calling to me and I decided I'd give it a go. It's pretty cliché I'm afraid. 
> 
> Warnings:  
> Blood (what to expect from a vampire fic, nothing extreme)  
> AU  
> Explicit Sexual Content

Red

Seto Kaiba didn't usually attend Pegasus' annual Christmas ball for various reasons. One, he disliked the holiday. Two, he disliked dancing. Three, he disliked Pegasus. This year's invitation, however, had been delivered to him in person, sent to his home address and signed with an obnoxious 'Do grace us with your presence, my boy.' Their recently pronounced joint venture required promoting, and Pegasus enjoyed doing that in a social setting with an audience of his choice. Kaiba had stood, stoic and unfazed, next to Pegasus for that part of the evening, trying and failing to block out his business partner's antics. He had also ignored the soft thumping sound in the back of his head. 

Kaiba knew that of the two of them Pegasus was the more skillful manipulator when it came to interaction and conversation with potential sponsors, and he certainly appreciated that he could stand back and let the other man do that for him. If only Pegasus hadn't known of his aversion and tried his best to drag Kaiba into the spotlight with him for his own amusement. Now that this obligation was fulfilled, though, Kaiba could finally escape the public eye, trying to melt into the shadows next to the huge Christmas tree in the corner. 

He had acquired a glass of red wine - Pegasus was known for his exquisite collection of Merlot and Shiraz - and was gently swirling the glass to enjoy the exposure of aroma and dark red colour when his eyes caught a stranger's gaze from the opposite end of the ballroom. Kaiba held the eye contact, unwavering, and the stranger lifted his own nearly emptied glass of red wine in a toast. Kaiba raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry but the stranger made no move to come closer and initiate a conversation. He was dressed in a fashionable black suit, the shirt underneath a dark plum colour, almost like his eyes. His hair was eccentric, dyed black, blonde and red, sticking up into all directions. The smirk on his face was assertive and self-assured. 

Thump. Thump. The distant sound in the back of his mind intensified a fraction and he lifted the wine to his lips, swallowing around a generous sip, feeling tannins and fruit spread over his palate. The band was playing "Santa Baby", the singer trying for an alluring sound, husky and low at the far end of her register. It made Kaiba's skin crawl in annoyance. 

The stranger signaled for a waiter to refill his empty glass, taking his eyes off Kaiba only for a moment. When the wine was poured someone squeezed past the waiter in a hurry and accidentally hit him on his back. The man stumbled forward, momentarily losing his balance and spilling some of the wine onto the stranger's fingers. Kaiba could see his eyes widen even from the distance, a string of what were probably apologies bursting from his mouth. The stranger smiled, unfazed, but pulled his hand away with a few words when the poor man tried to dab it with a napkin. 

As the waiter turned away, probably looking for more supplies to clean up the mess, the stranger lifted his hand to his face, inspecting the rivulets of red running down his fingers, over his palm, onto his forearm. Slowly he brought his lips down to the slender wrist, eyes trained on Kaiba's. His tongue grazed the fragile-looking skin above the pulse point, the lower lip dragging over it and up just a fraction, the adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. 

Thump. Thump. Thump. 

The room had narrowed around them. Those purple eyes had become dark and feral and Kaiba knew they were a perfect mirror of his own blue ones, burning with a fire that was slowly spreading through his body from inside. 

Kaiba turned on his heel abruptly, leaving the ballroom. Long strides took him to the patio door. A valet stood ready with his coat, and he slipped on dark grey, almost silvery shantung silk over his midnight blue suit before stepping out onto the patio. The light of the full moon reflected off the coat and Kaiba placed his hands on the rail surrounding the patio, sucking in deep breaths of cold December air. Everything was quiet and peaceful for a moment. 

He heard the patio door open again behind him, a terrible rendition of "All I want for Christmas is you" becoming audible then fading again as the door was closed. The sound in the back of his head, however, returned full force, now strong enough for him to make out a distinct rhythm. 

Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. 

Steps behind him, then the stranger leaned onto the rail next to him. His coat was black as night but his eyes were glittering in the dark, calm and certain. He was radiating waves of body heat laced with undercurrents of desire. 

"A lovely night, isn't it." The stranger's voice was dark velvet, stroking places inside him he had forgotten existed. He shook his head slowly to clear it from the aftermath of that enticing timbre. 

"You should not have come," he replied, tiredly. 

"Shouldn't I have?" The smile in the other's voice was tangible albeit not quite sincere. "Don't you want me to stay? Keep you company? Tell you my name?" 

"It does not matter," Kaiba muttered softly, not quite sincere himself. "Especially if you insist on staying and continuing that little game of yours." 

"You are not a game."

Kaiba laughed, humourlessly. "Indeed, I am not."

"What I mean is that this isn't a game to me," the stranger insisted. "What would you say if I told you I've been waiting for this? Never knowing what it was I've been waiting for, until I saw you standing there tonight?" 

Du-dum, du-dum. Loud and insistent, and Seto Kaiba gripped the rail harder. "You have no idea what you are asking for," he forced out. 

"Atem. My name is Atem," the other breathed softly, stepping just a little closer. 

Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. "You. need. to. stop. this." Kaiba punctuated the words sharply for emphasis, clenching the rail in a death grip. 

"I don't want to stop." 

Kaiba could feel the other's body heat, his life force, like a beacon, could smell his scent as it enveloped him, the pounding in his ears now so loud it drowned out all reasoning. He turned towards the other man. 

The movement was too quick for a human to apprehend. The stranger, Atem, gasped as his back hit the trunk of an old oak tree down in Pegasus' gardens. Kaiba's body was pressed up against him, Kaiba's hands left and right of his head. 

Fear at last entered those ever-confident purple eyes, just as Kaiba had known it would, but it was not fear alone and that surprised him. There was lust there, and longing. 

Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum. A heart beating hard and fast now, hot blood pounding, rushing through veins. So close Kaiba could almost taste it already, and he was nearly dizzy with the combination of hunger and desire. 

When had been the last time he had been carried away like this? He could not remember. He could not _think_.

He knew and heard that his voice had already changed to a darker, deeper tone, knew that his canines had sharpened, lengthened, glittering and showing in his humourless smile. "Are you regretting your decision now?" 

Atem's breath came in fast gasps, his eyes wide, but he was not shying away, was pressing himself against Kaiba instead, hands gripping the front of his silver coat. "No."

Even through the haze of his hunger, Kaiba realised there was something that didn't add up. They were always paralysed with fear, they were always helpless with want. But they were never so willing, so sure.

And suddenly his lips were boldly claimed in open-mouthed passion. Atem was ignoring the danger of protruding fangs, moaning into the kiss as his hands slipped to Kaiba's back, gripping him in desperate, blind need, rubbing their bodies together. 

Kaiba groaned, growled, low and feral, lust momentarily overriding hunger, and ground himself back into Atem.

"Yes," the other gasped, movements in sync with the pounding heartbeat that filled Kaiba's every sense, and threw his head back against the tree, exposing his throat. 

It was the last straw. The gesture, a gesture of trust or animalistic surrender, made it impossible for him to hold back any longer. Kaiba's hand fisted in Atem's hair, keeping his head tilted back, mouth sliding wetly down Atem's throat, still thrusting his body against Atem's, driving them both back against the tree, again and again. 

And Atem was still gasping, begging, each thrust knocking his head into the jagged bark of the tree. "Yes. Yes. Please."

The moment the skin broke over his carotid, Atem came with a broken cry, spasming, clawing at Kaiba's back. Blood burst red from the wound, gushing into Kaiba's mouth, down his throat, so much that it trickled out of the corners of his mouth in rivulets, so much that it painted his lips red. 

He gulped it down, once, twice, and felt orgasm claim his body in a series of waves that wouldn't seem to end, that had him more helpless than he had ever felt before, shaking violently against Atem as he fed on his blood. 

When it finally subsided, Kaiba pulled away, canine teeth slipping out of the wound, and noticed Atem was completely limp in his grasp. 

A burst of fear took Kaiba like he had been dipped in icy water, as he stumbled backwards, taking the unresponsive body with him. He had never known fear, he had never known panic, he had never concerned himself with the fate of his victims. Until now.

And suddenly it all fell into place. Shouldn't he have known the moment he had set a foot into the ballroom? Shouldn't he have felt it the moment his eyes had fallen upon the other? But maybe he had felt it, maybe he had known it all along. Atem, somehow, had known, with a certainty that had Kaiba's mind reeling. Maybe that was all that mattered. 

Was this something he was choosing to do, Kaiba wondered as he lowered Atem to the ground and felt for the faintest hint of a heartbeat, the last thread that bound the other to this life - or was it something that was not within his power to decide? Was he bound to a beastly instinct? Or could he walk away from this if he wanted? Was this love as humans encountered it, a bond so strong there was no alternative?

He remembered Atem licking red wine off his wrist earlier tonight, wine dark red as blood, and marvelled at the parallel as he brought his lips to his own wrist. Sharp teeth ripped open the tender skin, and blood immediately spurted from the wound. Kaiba cradled Atem's head in his lap, blood staining both their coats, and pressed his freshly opened wound to Atem's lips.

Nothing happened for an eternal moment. Suddenly Atem gasped for breath and a second later his lips fastened hungrily onto Kaiba's wrist.

Kaiba sucked in a sharp breath. _Knowledge_ flooded him, knowledge of the man in his lap down to the deepest corners of the mind. At the same time he knew that his own mind and soul were being revealed to Atem in this instant. Oh, there was still much to learn about each other, but the foundation of a knowledge more intimate than words could tell was already there. With this knowledge encompassing his mind and soul, Kaiba knew what his choice was, would have been and would always be, despite an animalistic instinct telling him the same thing. 

As the other fed on him, he felt Atem's death and rebirth, experienced it with him in those moments under the full moon, the terrible pain that had Atem writhing on the ground, the struggle towards the life that was offered in Kaiba's blood, the sweetness of relief when that life finally flooded into him, the helplessness of a soul stripped bare in the wake of a new dawn.

At last Atem's eyes opened to reveal crimson irises that gazed into his with wonder. His hand rose, pale but strong, from the ground to stroke Kaiba's face above his own. Kaiba's hand absently combed through Atem's hair, while Atem tested his teeth with his tongue and allowed a slow, satisfied smile to spread over his features.

"I am what you are," he observed softly, his low voice gravelly. 

"You are bound to me, and I am bound to you, in every possible way," Kaiba replied, and there was a moment of panic that Atem might yet reject the intimacy, the enormity of such a promise. 

But Atem merely nodded. "Good." 


	2. 9. Carry + 13. Letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How to carry someone through the hardships of life when you can't actually be with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes:
> 
> This is probably my favourite out of the prompts I've been working on for now, it got unexpectedly long so it could be a stand-alone one-shot.  
> Thank you so much, talladeganights, for reading it over for me, and for giving advice with the little not-quite-poem! 
> 
> Warnings:
> 
> mentions of death (canon and non-canon)  
> angst

Carry/Letter

_ "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you." (Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien)  _

  
  


Mokuba Kaiba, aged 20, a few hours before his brother will leave for Aaru

_ You've known my brother for a long time. I've known him for longer. He is, despite being the best brother I could ever have and have had, a weird person. At present, he is involved in the weirdest long-distance relationship one could imagine - as I am quite sure you are aware of, no matter how much he would protest being in any sort of relationship at all. But this is it - and it's been going on for so long that we all know it isn't going to end very soon. So we are all gonna deal with it instead.  _

_ That's what Seto's stubbornness has come to - he is risking his life once a year to see you, to duel you, to talk to you, God knows what else, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't wanna know anyway. And after a day (a day that kills me every single time, one grey hair to my head every year with this day) he is back for another year, acting as if he never left. How can he go  _ on _? I know enough about love by now (and yes, I'll say it, in case that after all these years he still doesn't know how to say it himself) to know I would go  _ mental _ the moment I realised I'd be back to waiting for another year to see the one I love again. Not to mention there's never going to be a chance for a life together on this Earth. I guess this isn't going to cause you much concern, what with having died twice and being safe and cozy in the afterlife. I've had a number of conversations with my brother about this, and he always ends up saying, 'He took the easy way out. Living is the true burden.' _

_ I'm not even sure what it is that I want to say to you. I guess I need you to know that he is struggling after all, that he is hurting. I have this feeling that Seto puts on a brazen smirk when he comes to you, undaunted, audacious, and you return it and allow yourself to relax because he is  _ fine _ , obviously. And I fucking need you to know he is not. Sure, he is fine, everyone is fine, but a part of him is always hurting. You are dead, after all, why shouldn't he feel for you like one feels about a dead person? But there's never closure. Then again, you aren't dead enough for closure, right? But it was your choice and now it's his and none of it is for me to judge.  _

_ What I want is… I know you can't come back, he's told me once that you tried and it didn't work. He was not 'fine' after that, but I still have a hunch it might have been easier for him to accept than it was for you. He's learned the lesson of living with his decisions the hard way.  _

_ Accepting it doesn’t equal giving up for him, of course - like, when he has a new set of holograms done, the first one he sends them to look at is Yuugi, but the first one he wants to show them to is you. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at them. Can you believe that he actually asked me to invite Jounouchi over when I was younger and still living at the mansion? Of course, he wasn't really asking, more like telling me out of the blue that I could invite him for game night with Yuugi - and then he'd hover close with a frown on his face when they were there, sometimes Honda too, when his job allowed it, and it was like he was soaking up their presence because surrounding himself with your friends could take him a little closer to you.  _

_ I guess I'm asking you for something like that, something that can carry him through the days, even though you can't actually be there.  _

_ I'll ask Seto to give this to you once he arrives. I don't know if you'll have time to read it while he's there. Still sending my best regards to the afterlife.  _

  
  


Atem, son of Ra, forever 16, the Pharaoh's study, Aaru

_ Mokuba, I am truly thankful for your letter. I did have the time to read it - I guess Seto didn't tell you, but time stretches out somewhat differently in the lands of Aaru. What is a span of sunrise to sundown in your dimension can easily be a week here, we would not know. The only measure we have of the time passing in your dimension is the weakening of Seto's body as Aaru gradually spits him out again. But we always have more than one day when he arrives, and that's certainly enough for me to read your letter and write one in return while he sleeps. Forgive the mistakes, my Japanese is a little rusty these days. _

__

_ You are right, Seto never tells me much about how he is doing, or anyone else for that matter. I get a lot of 'they' re fine's whenever I'm asking. For some part he is trying to protect me, I guess. You have always had good hunches, Mokuba, and your assumption was correct. The moment we both realised I could not go back to your world even when I had admitted to my mistake and actually wanted to be there again… I wasn't 'fine' after that either. I wouldn't know which one of us was hit harder by that revelation. In some strange way that is entirely unique to your brother, I think he blames himself yet again for something he cannot change. He's mentioned a few times something along the lines of "I shouldn't have reminded you that you should have been alive." He probably assumes telling me about my friends would be reminding me of how much I am missing them. As if I could forget them, as if I'd ever have been able to forget about him. If living with our decisions is a weight for both of us to carry, it is at least in the knowledge that the other is out there somewhere, just barely out of reach, experiencing the same.  _

_ I understand what you are saying, though. Sometimes that knowledge is not enough. We need something tangible, something to cling to that is more than a memory. Something that carries more than a remembered promise.  _

_ You gave me the perfect idea. I've been writing a letter for your brother while he was sleeping and will continue to do so until he leaves again, and he will hopefully arrive in your dimension with a stack of papyri to get him through the year. Tell him to bring modern day paper next time, writing Kanji on Papyrus is what Jounouchi would probably call a 'pain in the ass'.  _

_ I don't want to apologise for loving your brother, Mokuba. I wish things were different, and I know it would make your life easier too. I appreciate your sacrifice that allows me to see Seto once a year. I would not want to miss this again in any lifetime, no matter how bittersweet the experience.  _

Atem, son of Ra, still at the Pharaoh's study

_ I wish I knew what to write, Seto. I have poured all my declarations of love, my unbridled emotion, into that first letter I wrote, and now I feel drained, exhausted, raw. But all you are going to have for the next 364 days awaiting you back at home are evanescent memories, and the words I put onto these rolls of papyrus. It feels like I need to provide nourishment, supplies for a journey, but I am unsure what it is you are going to need me to say. What will be waiting for you, what challenges and hardships are you going to be facing?  _

_ We speak so little of your everyday experiences and struggles once you are finally here with me. I find myself wondering what a typical day would look like for you.  _

_ You get up at the crack of dawn, don't you? Let me guess, 5.30? I have noticed that after some time spent in Aaru there is some very light stubble on your chin and cheeks (when we part your cheek is always just a little scratchy as it rubs against mine), so I'd say you require to shave every few days. What would you look like with a beard, Seto? I am imagining it right now. Even better, what would we both look like with a beard? I'd challenge you to grow it, but it's a contest I would lose, as my sixteen year old body has not come to develop facial hair at all.  _

_ What do you have for breakfast, Seto? Despite coffee, that is. I've seen those longing glances during our morning meals but you are always too stubborn to ask for it. _

_ You are probably taken to work by limousine. Does Isono still work for you? I am almost certain you possess a grand total of two cars - one a classy model from an international brand, the other a custom-made, self-designed beast of a car - and both for leisure instead of locomotion. Why would you bother driving anywhere as boring as the streets of Domino City, stop and go, red light, honking, in a car like that? Where do you drive, Seto? The highway, just for speed, and since no one is ever going to give you a…what would they call it, a speeding ticket? Or the coastal road, for the view? Secretly allowing yourself to imagine soaring over the seas like your dragon as you speed along…? I can almost see you, windswept hair, eyes reflecting the glittering sun on the water…  _

_ Forgive me for ending this letter so abruptly. I need to feel you, touch you, hold you. Right now.  _

Atem, son of Ra, the Royal Bedchambers

_I am going_ _to write as I sit next to your sleeping body, the scratching on papyrus is hardly louder than the incessant cricket song outside. The moonlight turns you into an ethereal creature, something elvish, your skin like porcelain. I am afraid to touch you lest your image shatter at the brush of my hand._

_ I am imagining you instead, entering the Kaiba Corp. building, people bowing to greet you, it's not so different from my days. We both rule, we lead, we make decisions. Only mine are far more inconsequential these days. Aaru has given me space to govern my people, to take care of them, but what harm could truly befall the land of those at peace? This land does not need my guidance.  _

_ Your company on the other hand depends on you completely, on your expertise but also on your person. You are Seto Kaiba. I would like to watch you work, meticulous, ambitious, uncompromising. I want to see you stare those into submission that think they could play you. I'd like to feast on the natural authority that is palpable in the air wherever you go.  _

_ What projects are you working on? I'd like to see it all. All the wondrous and fascinating technology that I will never have a chance of comprehending, that is to me like another kind of magic.  _

_ You leave late in the evening, in fact, I can easily imagine you being the last person to leave and the night guard locking up behind you. After all there is no one waiting for you at home. It must have been hard for you, letting Mokuba go. Where does he live now? I did not dare to ask the time you told me he had moved out, I was afraid of stirring up the pain, the feeling of loss even more. You probably knew the day would come and were prepared, as you always are, but no amount of preparation is going to serve as a satisfying fortification against a feeling so substantial and overpowering. I should have been there. Yes, I know what you want to say, you don’t need my help, you don’t need anyone to lean on. And I agree, you don’t. I could never forgive myself if I had taken away from you that kind of self-sufficiency. It is not the nature of love, either. None of that will change the fact that I should have been there for you. To lean on, to share the load. I wasn’t. I will never be. All you are going to have are memories and these words, so they will have to be good enough.  _

_ When the day ends, Seto Kaiba, when you have returned to your mansion, when you have completed the day’s chores and the midnight hours creep upon you like snakes, I want you to have these words:  _

_ The night is dark, and none of us have power to take the darkness away. But what we have, what we have built together, will serve to keep the dark at bay. The journey from dusk to dawn leads down a path of black despair. This path will take your weary soul through the underworld, the shadowy lair. You have taken this way before, you know each step, each stone; you have seen the snakes of evil, you have never been overthrown. You have beaten me, after all - the living child of Re, the sun - you have beaten the king at his own game and made him your companion. There is no darkness that can stand against our combined power. Our souls as our monsters will unite, to fight for us at the witching hour. All that I am, all that I have, will forever serve your dragon heart, neither shadow nor the sands of time shall manage to keep our souls apart. You will conquer darkness, and the shadow will yet pass away, for the night is dark but not eternal and at the end of it there always comes the day.  _

  
  


Seto Kaiba, a week after his return from Aaru, Kaiba mansion, at midnight

_ Do not feel sorry for me, Pharaoh, in your prison of gold and sandstone. You need those words just as much as I do. I have beaten you, that one time, and I am still claiming my reward, and that is to claim you, forever, to hold you, forever, to combine our forces, forever.  _

The same, two weeks later, Kaiba mansion, 6 am

_ I am getting up. Half an hour late, just to prove you wrong. The sun is already up and Isono is waiting with the limousine. I will forego coffee, it will remind me of the dire living conditions you face in your palace without any delicious and useful beverages to sustain you.  _

Sunday, Kaiba mansion, 5 pm

_ I think I will take out the ‘beast of a car’ for a ride today. The coastal road sounds like a good suggestion on your part. I can imagine your ‘windswept hair’ as you sit next to me, as it blows into your face at any given opportunity, looking utterly silly and even more of a mess than usual. It will definitely bring a smile to my face, and I might even be inclined to take you with me on my imaginary dragon ride.  _

A selection of notes written and collected by Seto Kaiba over the course of the following months. 

_ I absolutely refuse to grow a beard, but I will not back down from a challenge (even though you have no real chance of rising up to it yourself, apparently). I've clipped the pictures to the back of this letter. The portrait artist is an expert as you will certainly find when you have a look at it. I made him do three versions for your amusement only, your highness.  _

_ …  _

_ You should see the changes I applied to your dark magician's programming. The scowl needed to be fixed. It has a certain quality of "even just once a year is too frequent when it comes to seeing your face". I will verify the accuracy upon my next visit.  _

_ …  _

_ Mokuba called today. He informed me he is going to take 'a friend' to Kaibaland tomorrow. Wondering what he is expecting me to do. It  _ is  _ the first time he has ever hinted at wanting me to get to know the person he is seeing. But who am I to ask a dead Pharaoh for advice how to deal with my brother's love life. I just know what you would probably say - "Call Yuugi, he always knows what to do in a situation like that." In fact, that's what I'm going to do. You see? I don't need you.  _

_ I do need you, but I most certainly don't need your advice.  _

_ …  _

_ I really need to give you some decent paper next time. I can hardly carry around a stack of papyri in my briefcase or have it lying around on my office desk. Photographs on my phone will have to do, but they don't have that faint smell of soot and candle wax that I have come to associate so closely with you that I can almost see you sitting there in your study as you are writing - as I am reading. Ensnared by that smell, as it connects me to you.  _

_ …  _

_ Some minor repairs to the space station due tomorrow. Imbeciles everywhere I go, earth and space alike. The audacity to suggest we should take the space station down because it costs my company unnecessarily.  _ My  _ company! Who the hell do they think they are, telling  _ me  _ how to employ  _ my company's  _ money!  _

_ You'd like to see me stare someone into submission, Pharaoh? Come see me shove this one out of an airlock some time. Good riddance.  _

_ …  _

_ Halfway mark today, Pharaoh. I have started the training schedule early, progress has been reasonable so far. I absolutely won't be repeating last year's lapse and spend two weeks hospitalized upon return. The aftereffects need to be minimized as much as possible.  _

_ …  _

_ Sometimes it feels like it's been a day. Sometimes, a lifetime.  _

_ …  _

_ I have promised myself to give Mokuba the space he needs to be his own person, to make his own decisions. A leave from his Kaiba Corp. position to go to university. Astrophysics, Law, Biomedical Engineering… Medicine. I am afraid he is quite fond of medicine. _

_ I guess you never had to wonder about passing on your legacy. Being dead has certain advantages, you know.  _

_ A part of me has been speculating, when Mokuba would be old enough, have a family of his own, Kaiba Corp safely in his hands, that he wouldn’t need me anymore. And if I could manage to let go, let go of everything…. Damn it. I won't be weak. I'll fucking carry on and see it all through till the end.  _

_ …  _

_ Sometimes I imagine what my death could be like. If I knew when to expect it, that is. Cancer, for example, that is rather predictable. When the time would come I'd launch my pod. My body wouldn't be able to bear the strain. When I'd walk into your city, into your court, I'd know it would be forever. There would be nothing tearing at me, no fingers of pain clawing at my muscles, no subtle aches getting stronger and stronger, screaming at me to get out. I could see you, kiss you, make love to you, without pain. Without pain in my body or my heart.  _

_ …  _

_ I've been up all night at the training lab. Running a simulation of me and you dueling the computer. I want to do it again, duel with you, by your side. Uniting our monsters. 'There is no darkness that can stand against our combined power.' I can almost believe it now.  _

_ …  _

_ Mokuba has hacked into Kaiba Corp.'s as well as my personal bank account and cancelled all payments going into his direction. Leaving a message on my PC not to reverse it, he needs to 'make it on his own'. It's taken me a week to find out where he is working. A part-time job as a bartender! I wish he still lived at the mansion so I could ground him! I know I promised I would let him be his own person, and that includes making his own mistakes...but he can't just expect me to stand there and do nothing while he puts himself into danger…  _

_ Alright, I can see where this is going. Don't you smirk at me, Pharaoh.  _

_ …  _

_ Last night I dreamed we were there again, you and me. The dreadful silence between dimensions, neither here nor there. Clinging to each other, your body trembling in my arms from the strain of interdimensional travel, both of us panting. And again, that voice, just like a deja-vu, just like I remember it, surrounding us as much as resounding in our heads.  _

_ I don't think I need to repeat the words to you. I remember your stricken face when you heard that your coming alive in our dimension, in your own body, as your own person, would mean Yuugi's death.  _

_ In my dream, however, you did not turn back - you kept clinging to me and charging through the barriers trying to keep you out - and Yuugi's ghost passed us by, smiling sadly…  _

_ Despite all the pain it has caused us and will cause us, Atem, I am grateful for that warning voice that had you turn back to your dimension at that moment. I know we both couldn't have lived with the other option.  _

  
  


Yuugi Mouto, a week before Seto Kaiba's departure for Aaru

_ Atem, mou hitori no boku, my dearest partner,  _

_ How can it be that the idea of writing to you has not come to my mind even once in all this time? That I needed Kaiba's suggestion to realise I could talk to you again this way. Granted, the first two years none of us knew he had managed to visit you in Aaru. But after we had found out, after he had told us, shouldn't I have rushed to find a way to communicate with you? I have been so preoccupied with letting you go. Telling myself everything was as it should be, no threats to any of our worlds, we are all living our respective lives… But Kaiba is a thorn in destiny's side, refusing to let go, stirring up the still surface of a lake to dive into it deep enough to uncover its secrets.  _

_ I feel so guilty at times for not trying, but I know better - I am not Seto Kaiba. I have neither the means nor that unyielding will to do it. Do you know he has an insane training schedule, next to all his usual Kaiba Corp. stuff, to prepare his body for the strain of the journey?... Well, I guess you know, you've seen his body after all, and rather closely, I assume, from what I could gather between the lines of what he and Mokuba have been telling me.  _

_ You can't have felt that way while you were still here with us, or you would have stayed… right? I admire the two of you for being so sensible about it. Kaiba told me you are not planning to come back because you belong there and it would needlessly disrupt the balance of our dimensions, and besides, you would see each other in the afterlife for eternity, anyway. He was very brusque about it, which told me there's a good deal of emotion involved on his end, and I can't imagine you pursuing a relationship despite such obstacles if you don't actually mean it in all seriousness. It's probably a bad way to say this, but I am happy that you have found each other, I am happy for you. If there's anything I can do for you, for the two of you, let me know. _

_ What can I tell you about me? Well, I am still working at the game shop two days a week, Jou is doing all the other shifts to finance his professional dueling career. He's been making the Japanese top-10 for about five years now. Jii-chan is, well, he's old, I guess. He has a hard time walking, his memories are getting jumbled, he is tired more often than not, but he takes it all in stride with admirable equanimity.  _

_ The rest of the week I am working for Kaiba Corp. and on some personal projects - I wish I could show you some of those. Anzu came back from America three years ago. She didn't want her active career to end abruptly when she got too old so she is now working as a teacher and choreographer and doing contemporary dance projects. We're also hoping… to have children soon. I don't know if you want to hear these things, I don't want to make you sad…  _

_ I still miss you, you know. I always will. But I guess since we are soulmates and all, we'll be reunited after my time in this world is over, too. I don't know if it's possible, if things work that way in the lands of the dead, but if you can… Would you welcome Jii-chan's soul when his time has come? I will miss him so much but at least I'll know he won't be alone without a friend. _

_ And here I am, asking you for your help again, mou hitori no boku. How good it would be to talk to you again when our souls were so close in our shared body… I know a time will come when we will be this close again. Until then, I'll try to make the best of this life. I feel like I owe it to you.  _

_ Your partner Yuugi _

  
  


Seto Kaiba, a day before his departure for Aaru

_ I feel like a mailman. I am already carrying letters from Mokuba, Yuugi and Anzu, and I have a feeling that there will be a last minute addition. If the mutt hasn't forgotten how to write, that is. _

__

_ And no, of course I did not tell Yuugi. Or Mokuba, or anyone else for that matter. It's our dirty little secret what happened in the limbo between dimensions, Pharaoh.  _

_ I will see you tomorrow, and it will all be worth it. There's nothing more to say.  _


	3. Standing in Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes:
> 
> "By the Way" by Red Hot Chili Peppers popped into my head whenever I read the prompt Standing in Line. I imagine this little ficlet like a video clip in my mind, and that's how it's written. Pretty strange, but I loved this image of the two of them and wanted to share it with you. 
> 
> Warnings:
> 
> Do not try this at home.

Standing in Line

The stadium is up ahead, a giant asymmetric dome rising from the ground like a ship's bow, the roof a gold-tinged white in the evening sunlight. It's another hour to the show but the line is endless, rounding block after block. The man behind him is eating a sandwich, his noisy chewing making him roll his eyes. The young blonde ahead is giggling into her phone and recounting for the third time her most recent date to her friend Annie on the other end of the line. He could have told the story for her by now. People are tapping their feet, listening to music, some even practicing their moves while they all are waiting for the endless line to start moving. 

His twin brother Yuugi yawns widely. Yuugi's probably a lot less excited than him, he is not a practitioner and has reluctantly agreed to tag along with him and Jou, who is finishing his sandwich that very moment. Even Jou's excitement, which he normally has in spades, is a little subdued by the long wait. 

"Plan on spending the night here, Pharaoh?" 

A number of heads in the line snap up to find the source of that voice, eyes squinting against the blinding rays of the low sun. 

The Pharaoh doesn’t have to look. He knows the voice, he knows what it means. Closing his eyes for a moment, he smiles to himself, enjoying a familiar rush of adrenaline. 

He doesn’t have to plan his jump, he's had plenty of time before to study the wall they are standing next to. Before anyone has realised what he is doing, he has started to run and has scaled the wall that is more than twice his size in three quick steps, hauling himself up by his hands the last few inches.

He is face to face with the man who calls himself Blue Eyes. Who enjoys a grand entrance, who styles himself in a skin-tight full body suit of white and blue colours. The Pharaoh's own style is much more common, black baggy pants, black sleeveless top. His multicoloured untamable hair makes him hard to overlook anyway. Nonetheless, for quite a different reason, he appreciates Blue Eyes' skin-tight outfit. They simply look at each other as they are standing on top of that narrow wall, all eyes on them. 

They don't need a cue. It's probably in a flicker of their eyes, or the hint of a smirk flashing across their features, but suddenly they are moving, running. A cheer erupts from below. 

The Pharaoh is in the lead on top of the narrow wall, racing ahead until he has reached the end and uses the momentum of his dash to propel himself up onto an even larger wall, hands grasping stone, hauling himself on top. A flash of white and blue in the corner of his eye and Blue Eyes is next to him. 

There are rows of windows above them and they are simultaneously grasping for ledges to pull themselves up, climbing three or four storeys up the bildung this way. 

A protruding ledge awaits them and they take a millisecond to decide their way up. Blue Eyes jumps and leans back mid-jump to reach out and grab the edge, hurtling himself up over it. His longer limbs allow for a move that the Pharaoh cannot perform, but he is already well on his way himself. Turning around to face away from the wall the Pharaoh jumps and grasps the ledge in preparation for a chin-up, swinging his legs up and over the ledge in one fluid move. The manoeuvre loses him a few seconds in his chase of Blue Eyes, who is already climbing up the metal structure framing a set of fire escape stairs. The Pharaoh follows suit. 

They finally reach the rooftop and take off running. Eyes trained on the edge, the Pharaoh can feel a mad grin breaking through the utter concentration on his face. Precision jumps are his speciality. 

Blue Eyes is the first to fly off the edge and land on the opposing rooftop but the Pharaoh knows the other takes a moment longer to jump, always assessing first, if only for a split-second. The Pharaoh, however, has a habit of jumping on instinct alone, which has a touch of madness considering the height of the building, but that has never stopped him before. He leaps off the edge, lands smoothly on his feet and is already speeding forward, hot on Blue Eyes' heels. 

He fully gains on him as they take the second dive to a rooftop slightly below the first one and further away. This time they are landing on hands and knees but catching the fall with a graceful roll before taking off again. 

Four or five quick jumps in succession take them over walls and narrow ridges, with the Pharaoh in the lead. Getting cocky and enjoying the bursts of adrenaline, he does a somersault from one edge to the next and can almost feel Blue Eyes' annoyance close behind.

The row of buildings on the same level ends, the only way down now is a series of balconies. The Pharaoh is already climbing over the edge onto the first and hanging from it to do a hang drop to the next one. He can hear faint screams from below but he is too focussed to really register them. He assumes Blue Eyes is following but doesn't take the time to check. Four hang drops later he is halfway down the building and level with the adjacent one. He leaps onto it and hears the telltale drop of feet behind him. 

They are racing across the rooftops and leaping from one to the next again until they reach a particularly far jump. This time they both take a moment to judge the distance, then start their sprint towards the edge almost simultaneously. The Pharaoh cat leaps over the looming precipice, hands briefly touching the edge of the opposing roof but propelling himself up and onto his feet. A surprised 'uh' behind him makes him whirl around. 

Blue Eyes has copied his move but one of his hands is slipping as he grabs the roof edge and for a moment he hangs suspended in the air on one unsteady hand. 

"Kaiba!" The Pharaoh is flat on his stomach in an instant and reaches for the other's hand, grabbing the wrist, steadying it. Blue Eyes growls angrily even as he grasps the Pharaoh's other hand and jumps up over the ledge with the added support. 

"I didn't need your help!" he huffs, breathless. The Pharaoh laughs through his own gasping breaths. "I know." 

And before the other can recover fully, he is back on his feet and storming off at full speed. "Fuck you, Atem!" he hears from behind and knows Blue Eyes is giving chase, always at an advantage when they are doing a full sprint, due to his long legs. 

They jump a few more times, then take the last four storeys down by cat leaping between two buildings, at last sliding the final yards down and rolling as they reach the ground. 

A series of rails are framing the steps that lead down to the stadium. Blue Eyes vaults over them while the Pharaoh jumps from one to the other. The stadium walls rise before them, the line of people at the entrance is cheering frantically now. Everyone has been watching the mad rooftop chase. 

The dome of the stadium is raised upon a construct of intersecting metal bars. They begin their ascent with a rapid dash up those bars, jumping between them, vaulting, simply running up their narrow steep path and reaching the next bar with a back flip. 

At last they reach the dome, scrambling up those sleek panels of white metal like geckos on a wall. The Pharaoh's lungs are burning, his feet are giving out beneath him, but Blue Eyes is next to him, ahead of him, just a few inches higher already. 

Suddenly the Pharaoh's right foot loses purchase on the flat surface. His hands are too tired to hold him up and he feels himself slipping, about to slide down. He gasps. And then another hand grips his own, preventing his fall. He stares up into the shocking blue eyes that give the other his nickname, forgetting to move for a moment. 

"Atem!" the other hisses, and the Pharaoh scrambles to find purchase for his feet again. The last few yards are a matter of pure will, his entire body screaming at him, Blue Eyes' panting breaths as loud in his ears as his own. They reach the flat surface at the top together. 

The cheering from below is rising around them like the sound of the sea, the wind is whipping their hair around but they simply stare at each other until their gasping breaths have evened out. 

Loud music erupts from the stadium, a commentator's voice blasting through the speakers. 

"What a performance, ladies and gentlemen! The champions have taken the stadium! It is finally time to open the doors and welcome you all to the Parkour and Freerunning World Championships! But first, let's have another round of applause for the two freerunners leading the Japanese Cup - the Pharaoh and Blue Eyes!"

The two figures on the roof are still facing each other, gazing into each other's eyes. They are calm now, adrenaline subsiding. The sun is touching the horizon, painting the evening sky red and orange behind the dome. Below them, people are swarming into the stadium. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes:
> 
> No, I don't actually have any kind of personal experience with Freerunning or Parkour. I know the competitive aspect is discussed controversially, since Freerunning isn't competitive per se. But with these two characters, everything is a competition. Please regard this as a work of fiction, not an actual description of Freerunning or Parkour.


	4. 20. Slow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to talladeganights for reading through it for me! 
> 
> Warnings:
> 
> Explicit Sexual Content

The first time Atem had told Kaiba to slow down had been when the latter had arrived in his throne room proud and bitter and desperate for a duel that only a dead man could give him. Kaiba had screamed in rage and demanded he send his monsters into battle already. The Pharaoh had looked at him and complied.

Go slow, Kaiba. I want to savour this.

There was no time. There simply was no time in Seto Kaiba's life to stand still, to linger, to feel. He had been back to the afterlife a few months later, broken and battered this second time, and Atem had wisely refrained from admonishment.

Kaiba. Slow down, you're killing yourself.

Kaiba had not granted him much time to make a decision. When Atem had knelt before him to try and save the dying man, to magically take him back to the dimension he belonged to, Kaiba had gasped out three words. Come with me. And then a crucial few more. Or let me die here instead.

Gods, Kaiba. Please don't do this to me. This is too fast, I can't decide. This life in exchange for your life...

Atem had paused. A second, a second of Kaiba's life force dissolving beneath his fingers. He had almost been too slow. Kaiba's heart had stopped. Atem's heart had stopped with it.

No. NO! I won't let you go!

A world, a life, any life, where he could not be sure that Seto Kaiba was out there somewhere, living, breathing, smirking, a hair's breadth or a dimension away... No.

Atem's energy had focussed and Kaiba's heartbeat had returned, halting, slow, laboured. Yes, Atem had thought. Yes, I'll come with you.

...

Slow down... Atem had breathed it that second time, pleading for a moment of quiet in the blinding light of his rebirth at Kaiba's space station. Kaiba had been frantic, barking orders at his assistants, his computers and machines, storming through the room, desperate. Atem, naked and cold, drained of all energy from the process of crossing dimensions this way, had collapsed onto the floor, simply too exhausted to move... But Kaiba had paused at his almost inaudible breath.

Slow down... Kaiba... You're making my head spin...

Kaiba had dropped to his knees by his side, pushing away the doctor who had been there the moment before, the doctor who had been checking Atem's vitals and finding no pulse, no sign of life, for those first few seconds. The transition from death to life had been slow, gradual, life reluctant to return to Atem, the virtual body Kaiba had created slow in accepting the ancient magic that had turned it into flesh and blood. 

...

It was not just Kaiba, no, everything was too fast for Atem at first. Car rides and reunions. Words and video games. The passage of time from sunrise to sundown. The world did not slow down for him, but Atem was fast to adjust, to keep up with the new pace of life.

He wished he could slow down his thoughts sometimes. Wrap his head around what had happened. Most of all, get a grasp of what Kaiba had done and said in order to bring him here. What it meant, no, what he meant, to Kaiba.

There was no respite, however, as Kaiba sent a car to the game shop almost every day, to take Atem to Kaiba Corp. and make him test dueling systems, holograms and simulations, often far into the night. Watching his progress in adjusting to their world, always ready to provide a mocking comment to drive him further on when he was on the verge of dropping out of their race.

Don't slow down on my account, Pharaoh. Surely that isn't all you've got?

And Atem pushed. Pushed past the obstacles, pushed himself up from the floor. Pushed Kaiba against the wall of his test lab when they were both hot and seething with anger. Pushed against his body when Kaiba crushed their lips together.

Don't. Not so fast... Slow down...

He moaned it into the kiss that third time, helplessly drowning in the haze of passion while Kaiba was fumbling with belts and buttons, lips scorching and furious against his own, at his collarbone, his jawline.

Slow down, Kaiba... I'm not going anywhere.

Kaiba's gaze was indignant, wrathful. Hurt seeping into pools of blue. Another piece added to the puzzle of reasons and consequences that was the sum of Kaiba's actions.

Kaiba should have been entitled to act upon his rightful anger, to stop what he was, no, what they were doing. Atem made to pull away.

A growl of rage and Kaiba reversed their positions. A frantic moan from Atem as Kaiba thrust their groins together. Another, for a bite to his lower lip as Kaiba captured his face in dexterous hands. Never slowing down. Never yielding in his urgency. Holding Atem up against the wall with his body and his heat long after his knees had buckled under Kaiba's onslaught.

Their lovemaking was frenzied and half-mad. Clothes strewn over the floor. Kaiba's naked body in all its glory over Atem's, braced on strong arms, long legs intertwined with his. One hand grasping for the pocket of his discarded coat.

Atem, seeing the flicker of insecurity stemming from inexperience took the lube out of Kaiba's hands and prepared himself impatiently, showing Kaiba in the process what he probably knew but had never done before.

The light of a silver moon was fairy-bright on Kaiba's hair. His arms trembled when he finally pushed into Atem.

Yes. Yes, Kaiba. Faster. Yes!

A rumbling laughter, a little broken on the edges.

Don't want me to slow down?

No. Gods, no.

Kaiba did not make him beg. His pace was hard and fast and Atem met him every single time, hands scrambling for purchase on the floor, finally gripping Kaiba's hips to pull them even harder against his body.

Don't. Fucking. Stop.

Never.

...

Their breathing was nearly calm again, their racing hearts had slowed down next to each other where their chests were pressed together, Kaiba still half propped up above Atem, still half inside him. Softening. His eyes softening, too.

The world had slowed down in the dead of night. Atem was here, had finally arrived, in this body, in this life, in the knowledge why he was where he was, and that this time he would stay. A lifespan. The lifespan granted to him, as a man, not as a king. The lifespan granted to him next to the man who had taken it upon himself to bring him back from the dead at the risk of his own life. A lifetime shared with a man who did not know how to slow down, how to pause where others would stop, who would always push forward. A lifetime Atem was looking forward to as his hands were caressing brown strands at Kaiba's neck, as he was looking into eyes of blue tinged silver by the moonlight, almost too close to focus as their foreheads leaned together. The world had slowed down in the dead of night, for a moment. Atem smiled, knowing it would break the spell. But eager to start again.


End file.
